Choosing the right lace for your Lingerie

Confused about all the different types of lace out there and when to use them? (Or did you watch the Great British Sewing Bee and are now terrified of Lace?! Don’t worry, it’s really not that frightening!) Here’s a quick little guide for the best types of lace to use when sewing lingerie.

Tips for choosing Lace

If you want to dye your lace, look for lace with natural fibres like cotton and viscose or nylon. These will take up dye a lot better than polyester.

Be wary of really cheap lace especially when you are using this to sew lingerie with, there’s nothing worse than scratchy, itchy lace touching your skin!

Knickers!

Stretch Lace Edging

Perfect for making stretch lace knickers with – if the stretch lace is good enough quality, there’s no need to add any other elastication!

Bras

Stretch Lace

Stretch lace can be used to make up the cups of bras as long as you line it with something rigid. Stretch lace is great for covering laminated foam.

Rigid Lace

Great for making bra cups. If your lace is fairly stable, there’s no need to line it with anything. If it’s more delicate, you can line it with a rigid sheer nylon for a bit more support.

The design of this lace is often called a Galloon Lace – If you look carefully enough, you can see that both sides mirror each other.

Slips and Camisoles

Lace edging trim

Great for edging the bra cups of slips and for finishing the hems of slips and camisoles…

Chantilly Lace Edging

Vintage Lace Edging

Tulle embroidered lace

Delicate lace that is embroidered onto a tulle background. Look out for lace like the one below where you can get coordinating widths of the same lace. It’s really useful if you don’t want to have a wide lace trim dominating whatever you’re making.

Are you terrified of sewing lace? What’s your favourite lace to sew and work with?

Have a look at my Pinterest board – Lace Inspiration – to inspire you and your lacey creations!